Donald Trump has tumbled out of the ultra-exclusive Forbes 400 list of America's richest people for the first time since making it on in 1996, worth $400 million shy of this year's cutoff, the outlet revealed Tuesday.
The former president is worth $2.5 billion, according to Forbes, after he lost $600 million of his fortune during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump was ranked 339th last year. His highest ever position was at 71st in 2003, the year before he launched his NBC hit series The Apprentice.
But in March 2020, three years after Trump refused to divest from his name-brand real estate holdings, the coronavirus pandemic upended the economy.
Divesting when he took office in 2017 would have been an opportunity to diversify his assets, Forbes argues.
Even if he divested and paid maximum capital gains tax, investing the rest into wider portfolios like the S&P 500 could have left him 80 percent richer than he is today.
Instead, his narrow wealth portfolio was dealt a blow by the pandemic's particularly powerful impact on tourism and hospitality, as well as big city real estate prices.
Donald Trump is off the Forbes 400 richest Americans list for the first time since 1996
Trump's ranking had been dropping throughout his years at the White House and peaked in 2003
Reports that Trump was in talks to sell his Washington, DC hotel emerged in early September.
The hotel was a popular spot during the Trump administration for fans of the ex-president, as well as diplomats and lobbyists hoping to curry favor.
But by the time Trump left office, the hotel took a 60 percent revenue hit and was tangling with a $170 million outstanding loan, the Washington Post reported.
During the pandemic its operations were curbed significantly by DC restrictions on bars and restaurants. Hotels were open for people to stay but at one point were barred from holding events and conferences.
'Since the coronavirus, we weren't doing so bad until I'd say probably a month ago. It really, like, slowed down,' a hotel staffer told Insider this past March.
Trump's luxury apartment holdings in New York City and other urban centers also lost value as parts of the city saw rent prices slashed.
After being hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, former president Donald Trump is in advanced talks to sell the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. (pictured in Oct. 2016)
The Trump International Hotel Washington D.C. features a spacious lobby and bar area, where allies of the president are often spotted hanging out
A June Associated Press review of more than 4,000 transactions over the past 15 years in 11 Trump-branded buildings in Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas and New York found prices
